With all Clan Bonuses awarded, we have an incredibly tight race for the top of the Clan Standings, as Clan We Are Hard comes from nowhere to take a miniscule 8-point lead over Turtle Clan. WAH's meteoric rise was the big story of round 2, as [gtplayer:504] shot up to 2nd place on the Leaderboard, still almost 400 points behind [gtplayer:143]. However, it was WAH's savvy acquisition of emerging Melee titans The Royster Brothers (#5 [gtplayer:614] and #6 [gtplayer:606]), and their 5850 points, that enabled WAH to catapult into first place after winning the Round 2 Clan Battle with a somewhat anticlimactic match of F-Zero GX. Read on for the full (and belated) details...

Fans of Cornelia Funke’sInkheart will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on the final installment of the trilogy. According to Funke, the “working title is Inkdeath,” and it could be released some time in 2007. While you’re waiting, check out Funke’s new series for younger readers, Ghosthunters, or one of her fantastic novels for older kids, like The Thief Lord—I’m currently listening to the audio book, and it’s so good that I make excuses to get back into the car and listen to another chapter. Finally, if you’re especially patient, start counting the days until the Inkheart movie is released in 2008!

You don’t need me to harp on about the mega-bestsellers but I would like to bring you each month, some of the easy-to-miss new fiction titles. They might be mainstream or quirky; unusual and trend setting; from a newcomer worth watching or a little-known foreign powerhouse who nevertheless deserves a closer look. Some are personal favorites (you can probably tell) but many are exciting new finds.

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas.
“(F)ast-paced mix of popular culture, love, mystery, and irresistible philosophical adventure” by a genre-blending young British writer and the author of PopCo. Edgy and worth a try.

Stop by Malletts Creek Branch to see some great photos taken this summer by teens who made their own camera out of a paint can. Yes, paint cans! Drop in and learn what pinhole photography is all about.

You've heard of the Nobel Prize awards. In fact, the 2006 awards for chemistry, medicine and physics have already been announced. But this Thursday, October 5th, the Annals of Improbable Research Magazine will present the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize winners at the 16th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard's Sanders Theater. The prizes are awared by Nobel laureates to scientists whose research "makes people laugh." Examples of past winners' papers include: for economics in 2005, the invention of an alarm clock that runs away and hides so that people have to get out of bed. For chemistry, the award was given for research to determine whether people swim faster in syrup or in water. And my favorite for that year, an experiment begun in 1927 in which a glob of black tar has been dripping through a funnel, a drop every nine years.

Join the next 2nd Tuesday book group and read the short stories of Jeff Parker, writer and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Eastern Michigan University. Register and pick up your packet of short stories through the Youth Department Downtown (327-8301). The group will meet 6:30-8 p.m. on Monday, October 9. Refreshments will be served.

Today, October 2, is the birthday of both Wallace Stevens, born in Reading, Pa. in 1879 and of Graham Greene, born in Hertfordshire, England in 1904.

Stevens was one of the few writers who kept his job after becoming a successful writer. He woke early every day and composed his poems in his head while walking to and from work at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company. Most people he worked with didn't know he was a poet and he preferred his anonymity. His first book, Harmonium, was published when he was 45. It contained some of his most famous poems including "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" whose first stanza contains a striking visual image:

"Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird."

Greene was a shy child who in his teens attempted suicide several times. At the urging of his therapist, he began to write. He spent much of his life in Vietnam where one of his most famous books, The Quiet American takes place. He published more than thirty books.

This five piece band from Toronto will be in Ann Arbor at Borders downtown on October 4th at noon for a short, but FREE concert. Martin Bandyke, from 107one, will interview the band. BNL's now have their own label, Desperation Records, with Barenaked Ladies Are Me recently released.http://www.bnlmusic.com/

Alternately called “campy”, “intriguing”, “wry”, “mesmerizing”, “overkill” (500+ pages), this artfully structured debut novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics, is in the end, a sincere and uniquely twisted look at love, coming of age and identity.

Teen narrator Blue Van Meer is finally staying put her senior year at the St. Gallway School in Stockton, North Carolina, after spending most of her life with her father, an itinerant academic, on a tour of college towns. She is bemused when befriended by a group of eccentric geniuses - “The Bluebloods”. And then, there is a murder. Blue and the "Bluebloods" are deeply enmeshed.

First time novelist Marisha Pessl impresses by modeling this intricately plotted novel after the syllabus of a college literature course, by naming each of the 36 chapters after great works such as Othello and Paradise Lost. Stunning effort – absorbing and great fun. Starred review in Publishers Weekly.

Jar City is a thriller by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, the first to be translated by Bernard Scudder from Icelandic. Set in modern day Reykjavik, this police procedural is as twisted as its city streets and as chilling as the arctic wind. It also introduces Inspector Erlendur, a dogged loner of a policeman with a few secrets of his own. Jar City won the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel 2002. (Reviews).

Featured Events

What Is the May 5 Road Funding Ballot Proposal?

On May 5, Michigan voters will decide whether to amend the State Constitution and raise the sales tax rate from 6% to 7%. What does that really mean? How will it work? How will the extra revenue be spent? What other laws would be triggered if the amendment is approved? What's all this about a "Road Tax?" This presentation hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area will provide information on the upcoming ballot proposal, related laws, and pros and cons of the legislation on Tuesday, April 7 at 7 pm at the Downtown Library.

Find out about all of the library's fun stuff for kids with AADL's parent page! JUMP is your stop to find recommended stuff for kids and learn about upcoming library events. Parents can also get information to plan their visit to the library an even find out about resources to help kids with their homework. It's all at jump.aadl.org!